Technology advancements within the three-dimensional modeling industry are providing avenues for physical simulation of real-life and hypothetical situations on computer systems. These models can provide valuable information for strategic and tactical planning. For example, three-dimensional models of city streets can provide first responders information regarding current city developments including entryway locations, building recognition, and the like. This information is valuable in reducing response time during emergency conditions. Further, emergency personal can train for emergency situations through simulated scenarios provided by or with the three-dimensional models.
Currently within the art, oblique images obtained from aerial photographs are used to provide close-to-accurate representations of each building's surface within the three-dimensional model. However, generally, it is difficult to obtain these oblique images with unobstructed views of the building's surface. For instance, most buildings in downtown regions of a major metropolitan city are close in proximity to one another. It becomes burdensome and time consuming to capture aerial images of each building without an obstruction, such as a neighboring building. Further, finding a single image without obstructions from the thousands of aerial images obtained, would be extremely time consuming and cost-prohibitive and may require three-dimensional modeling of all obstructing structures.
Some three-dimensional models edit the obstructed portion of the oblique image by approximating the building's surface using other portions of the same building. Although this method does provide a representation of the building within the three-dimensional model, the representation goes on the assumption that all portions of the building are created equal. However, this assumption is problematic as an obstructed area may have uniquely placed doorways and/or windows that may be ignored by the approximation.
Alternatively, a user can manually manipulate two or more oblique images to form a single image having an unobstructed view of the façade. This type of manual manipulation is slow and tedious, and requires experience and expertise in the modeling field.